The Pine Islands by Marion Poschmann review – in the footsteps of Bashō

The droll, beguiling story about a lecturer’s journey across Japan has been longlisted for the Man Booker International prize

Carnegie medal shortlist celebrates novels in free verse

Three of the eight shortlisted novels for the UK’s most prestigious children’s book award are coming-of-age stories in verse

Wellcome prize shortlist celebrates books about masculinity and mental illness

A transgender boxer’s memoir and Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation are among the six titles vying for the £30,000 prize

Anna Burns and Sally Rooney on Rathbones Folio prize longlist

Booker winner Milkman and Normal People, which took the Costa novel award, among 20 contenders for the £30,000 prize

In brief: Happening; Flotsam; The Burning Chambers – reviews

Annie Ernaux’s memoir is painful and politicised, Meike Ziervogel’s novel evokes grief in 1950s Germany and Kate Mosse delivers another intricate hit

‘It was like a miracle’: Eight writers surprised with $165,000 awards

Winners of Windham-Campbell prizes, intended to free authors from money worries, only learn they were in contention after they have won

Stormzy launches search for ‘best writer of a new generation’

Rapper develops his #Merky Books publishing imprint with the New writers’ prize for unpublished authors under 30

Man Booker International prize 2019 longlist sees small publishers win big

Judges praise the 13 finalists – all but two published by indie houses – for ‘enriching our idea of what fiction can do’

The Guardian view on literature: we need the Nobel prize

Editorial: The Swedish Academy, with its credibility shattered by a scandal, could not award a prize last year. This year, it will award two. It would have been better to let the gap in the record stand

First Uzbek novel translated into English lands €20,000 prize

Hamid Ismailov’s The Devils’ Dance, ‘an Uzbek Game of Thrones’ initially published on Facebook, takes the EBRD literature prize

Nobel prize in literature to be awarded twice this year

The Swedish Academy will award laureates for both 2018 and 2019 this autumn, after a sexual scandal forced them to postpone last year’s prize

Non-binary trans author nominated for Women’s prize for fiction

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi, who does not identify as male or female, among 16 books longlisted for the £30,000 award

Travel writer Colin Thubron receives outstanding contribution award

Veteran travel writer, praised for his vivid accounts of remote destinations, is honoured at Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards

Booker prize: Silicon Valley billionaire takes over as new sponsor

Charitable foundation Crankstart, run by married philanthropists Michael Moritz and Harriet Heyman, will fund the award for five years

Regina King wins Oscar for best supporting actress for If Beale Street Could Talk

Actor receives accolade for her role as a mother in Barry Jenkin’s adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk